Published on: August 28, 2025, 02:14h.
Updated on: August 28, 2025, 02:33h.
- Multiple stacks of cremated human remains have been discovered on federal territory in Searchlight, Nevada.
- The remains were unlawfully discarded on land overseen by the Bureau of Land Management.
- Investigators are probing the origins of the unlawful dumping.
Over 100 clusters of cremated remains have been uncovered in a mass burial site about an hour southeast of Las Vegas, raising questions about how they ended up there and whose they are.
KLAS-TV/Las Vegas received notification this week from a confidential informant who stumbled upon the grey piles of cremated bone along a highway near Searchlight on July 28.
Initial uncertainties regarding the contents of the piles were clarified when a shattered urn was discovered at the site.
The whistleblower captured several images of the piles set against a backdrop of cacti, desert foliage, and mountains.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which governs the land, has verified that the remains are human and is treating this incident as a case of illegal waste disposal. Although Las Vegas police initially began the investigation, they have since handed it over to the BLM. The Clark County coroner’s office is not involved.
According to Nevada law, individuals can scatter cremated remains for “casual use,” but BLM regulations prohibit commercial entities like funeral homes from disposing of remains on federal property.
This crucial distinction is key in the ongoing federal investigation.
No suspects have been announced as of yet.
This development comes just three weeks after the state of Nevada revoked the license of a Las Vegas funeral home. McDermott’s allegedly delayed the cremation of eight bodies for several months—one case extending to ten months!!—before transferring them to another funeral service.
The owner of the funeral home, Chris Grant, informed the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the delays were due to waiting for necessary approvals from the Clark County Social Services Department.
There is currently no indication that these two incidents are connected.